Latin America Tablets Market Opportunities and Growth Drivers

‘Tablets in Latin America: Market Opportunities and Growth Drivers,’ a Telecom Insider Report by Pyramid Research, analyzes the forces driving demand and supply in the Latin American tablet market based on proprietary data from our research in the market. It provides detailed competitive analysis on the tablet market, tracking tablet unit sell-through as well as sell-through market share by vendor and by OS. This report also evaluates near-term opportunities and assesses upcoming risks factors.

Key Findings

Pyramid Research estimates that 14.2m tablets were sold in Latin America in 2013, representing 6% of global tablet sales. Looking ahead, we believe that tablet sales in the region are set to grow rapidly through 2018, accounting for nearly 9.3% of the global tablet market in 2018.

Growth will be driven by the increasing popularity and greater availability of more affordable local brands and low-end, off-label Chinese tablets. With regard to midrange tablets from the top vendors, the expanded availability of financing options at retail outlets will allow a greater number of consumers to purchase these devices. Like high-end smartphones, high-end tablets have an aspirational value for which people are willing to borrow and go beyond their cash positions.

Several national, provincial and local governments across the region are investing in large purchases of tablets or pushing initiatives that require the private sector to increase the adoption of these devices among school-age children.

Wi-Fi-only tablets dominate the market mainly because cellular-capable tablets are typically 35-50% more expensive than a comparable Wi-Fi-only model, and because of the relatively high cost associated with subscribing to a tablet-specific mobile data plan.

Samsung will remain the top tablet vendor through the forecast period, 2013-2018. Assuming Apple doesn’t shift its focus away from high-end tablets, iPads will continue to lose market share, as the devices will remain too expensive for the average consumer.

‘Tablets in Latin America: Market Opportunities and Growth Drivers,’ a new Latin America Telecom Insider by Pyramid Research, sizes the market and analyzes the major forces driving the demand and supply of cellular-capable and Wi-Fi-only tablets in Latin America, with a global perspective. It delivers deep quantitative and qualitative insight into Latin America’s tablet market, analyzing key trends, evaluating near-term opportunities and assessing risk factors.

Based on insights directly from major regional and local market players and on proprietary data from Pyramid Research’s databases, the report provides detailed competitive analysis of the tablet market, with forecasts of key indicators such as tablet sell-through, tablet sell-through by vendor and tablet sell-through by OS up to 2018. The focus is on the consumer side of the major Latin American markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

The report provides in-depth analysis of the following tablet sales growth drivers:

A growing middle class and greater access to financing options

Increasing availability of more affordable local tablet brands and off-label Chinese tablets

Government initiatives to increase tablet adoption among school-age children

Video content, device subsidy and mobile data strategies carried out by fixed and mobile operators, as well as by pay-TV providers.

The report also presents case studies of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, examining the strategies implemented by telecom operators and vendors to capitalize on the booming Latin American tablet market. We conclude with a summary of key findings and a set of recommendations for mobile and fixed operators, vendors and application developers.